Sensor Tower: DAZN bests ESPN with $11.5M in May app store revenue

Brief:

Subscription video service DAZN last month was the top-grossing sports app worldwide with about $11.5 million in user spending, 9.5 times as much as a year earlier, per a Sensor Tower study. Thirty-seven percent of that revenue came from the U.S., followed by 6.5% from Japan.
ESPN's user spending grew 5.6 times to reach $4.7 million, making it the second-highest-grossing sports app worldwide. Seventy-four percent of revenue came from the U.S., followed by Canada at 1.6%. MLB at Bat, NBA and onX Hunt rounded out the top five sports apps by revenue worldwide for the month.
Apple's App Store drove most of the revenue for the top 100 app publishers during Q1, a separate Sensor Tower report found. The top 100 iOS apps made an average of $83.4 million while the Android ones earned $51 million.

Insight:

Sensor Tower's ranking of sports apps indicates that newer brands like DAZN can gain a strong following among mobile users, rivaling more established brands like ESPN and Fox Sports. DAZN's growth is being noticed by advertisers, as Nike is collaborating with the service on traditional ads and custom content in Germany during the FIFA Women's World Cup.

DAZN has previously attempted to tap into sports fans' shifting viewing habits by offer advertisers new opportunities for reaching viewers outside of traditional TV ad buys that can feel repetitive and overwhelming to fans watching live games. The ad-free service last year looked to obtain digital rights to major U.S. sports and introduce new ad models, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Sensor Tower's data also indicates strong growth for sports apps, with revenue surging last month from a year earlier. The data reflect activity through May, before the FIFA Women's World Cup kicked off in France. Fox is streaming the entire tournament on its Fox Now and Fox Sports apps, which may help to support growth this month.

While sports apps are growing, other Sensor Tower data maintains that gaming apps are still a key revenue driver for app stores. Among the top 100 publishers tracked by company, iOS gaming apps made an average of $70 million in Q1, up from $64 million in the previous quarter. Game developers grew their average revenue to $48 million on Google Play from $42 million during comparable periods. Gaming outperforms other app categories with an average of $114.5 million spent among the games publishers on both stores, about four times more than the $29 million average revenue for top non-gaming publishers.